Tag: metal

CBOT Vault Door

Posted under Mechanical

This past weekend the Chicago Board of Trade opened it’s bank vault to the public. The bank vault was one of many places in Chicago that were open to view as part of the 2013 Open House Chicago event, sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Not surprisingly, the vault was a popular destination for photographers and non-photographers alike. What attracted my eye the most was the enormous vault door with its intricate locking mechanism. I also found the use of the contrasting metals to be quite attractive. I don’t know if there is an engineering reason for the selection of metals, or whether it was just an example of great combination of functional and aesthetic design, but the end result was wonderful.


Gears

Posted under Greenfield Village

Gears

have this thing for anything old, mechanical or metal. When I was at Greenfield Village this past weekend for their annual Motor Muster, I had the pleasure of seeing many things which fit that description. One of the coolest places in the museum (in my opinion) is the Armington & Sims machine shop. The shop has a great collection of original machine shop tools and is actually a functioning job shop for items needed at the museum. I was using a Nikon 105mm Macro lens that I had rented from LensPro To Go and I made a pass through the shop to see if I could get some interesting images. One of my favorites from this trip is this shot of some tool which had a great collection of gears. I didn’t have my tripod with me that day, but if I did I would have taken some brackets for an HDR image. The shop is too dark to take handheld exposures.


Crank Handle

Posted under HDR

Crank Handle

This is another in a series of HDR images that I shot at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Once again the location was the Armington & Sims machine shop. I love the look of the old, oiled, metal of the vintage machinery. I think this type of material really works well with HDR. My goal was to really focus in on one element of the machine, in this case a crank handle, possibly used to operate a vise-like component, but I’m not sure. In comparison with one of the ‘as-shot’ images, I think this shot really brings out the details.


Dark Cutting Oil

Posted under Mechanical

Dark Cutting Oil

The image above was taken on a recent visit to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. I went for the annual Motor Muster, but spent some time touring the various exhibits. I’ve previously posted images from the Machine Shop, and this is another one from the same shop. My goal in this shot was to try and capture the feeling of the machine, gritty and oily. You can see metal shavings from the cutter, but what I really liked was the can of oil. The title of the image comes from the writing on the can ‘Dark Cutting Oil’.


Discarded #2

Posted under Michigan

Discarded #2

This is another shot taken of the ‘bone yard’ at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. This is a picture of a part of an old boiler (I think) which sits outside of one of the museum exhibits. This area is ‘littered’ with old boiler parts, coal and other items from an old machine shop. I was visiting the village for their annual Motor Muster event. The day was quite sunny and I liked the strong shadows created by the sun shining on the old boiler parts. Processing consisted mainly of increasing the contrast to make sure I captured the feeling of the scene.


Discarded #1

Posted under Abstract, Michigan

Discarded

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently attended the 2009 Motor Muster held at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Greenfield Village is part of the entire Henry Ford Museum complex, a great place to visit year round. Anyway, the Motor Muster had cars located throughout the village, and behind one group of car was the Armington & Sims Machine Shop. In front of this building sits a variety of discarded bits of boilers, coal and other wonderful rusty objects. The picture above is just one of the many interesting pieces of old ‘junk’ which is on display. I’ve always been attracted to mechanical things and I love high contrast, so when I have of a bright sunny day combined with some interesting historic junk, I’m a happy camper.


Layers

Posted under Abstract, Michigan

Layers

This image was taken at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. This museum has a great collection of power generators and heavy machinery (among other things). This particular shot it is a close-up of one of the power generators on display. What caught my eye was the various layers of metal and the way they were put together. I particularly like the use of the dovetails on one of the pieces.